Blockchain: Ukrainian Realities

Recently, more and more news from the world of cryptocurrency has appeared in the media. In particular, many of them mention Ukraine as one of the centers of active development of this industry. In this article, you can learn what is blockchain, bitcoin, and what is the real state of cryptocurrencies in Ukraine.

What is Blockchain?

The blockchain is the technology that makes it possible to store the registry of all the transactions not in one place, but on all the computers of the blockchain network. Such a distribution makes it an independent technology uncontrolled by the governments or financial institutions.

With the help of the blockchain, one can easily organize transparent document circulation, voting, public procurement and much more. But at the moment this technology is the most popular in the field of cryptocurrency.

The blockchain made it possible the emergence of such cryptocurrencies as litecoin, ethereum, and bitcoin, the most expensive of them today. Each of the electronic currencies has its own registry of records, which is placed on the computers of its participants.

Аnyone who connected their computer to the network can earn electronic money. However, the more participants in the network at the time of joining, the harder the mining becomes.

Blockchain and Bitcoin in Ukraine

Many countries have not yet adopted a certain position on the legal status of the cryptocurrency. Some of them prefer to prohibit a new and incomprehensible trend, but the overwhelming majority adheres to neutrality.

According to Ukrainian laws, bitcoin is not a currency, so at the state level stores can’t accept payment in bitcoin, as well as in the other cryptocurrencies. However, it is not forbidden to obtain cryptocurrency since electronic money is considered a commodity. In this regard, many Ukrainian entrepreneurs are actively investing in the mining of cryptocurrency. Such an activity allowed Ukraine to take its place in the top five mining countries.

Despite a lot of disputes, the legal status of the cryptocurrency in Ukraine can be determined in September 2017, and that as it is forecasted will strengthen the positions of blockchain and turn a semi-legal business into a competitive advantage of the country.

Blockchain Activities in Ukraine

The popularity of cryptocurrency mining in Ukraine has contributed to the emergence of many companies that provide services for developing applications for blockchain. There are attempts to use blockchain to carry out transparent purchases and voting, fight against corruption, etc. There are also thematic conferences that are designed to shed light on possible problems in the industry and find ways to solve them. Among the companies that are actively involved in this technology, we can name DistributedLab.

DistributedLab is a team in Ukraine that claims to be experts in many popular blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, PeerCoin, Ripple, and much more. Also, they usually build open-source solutions for e-banking. They created such apps like:

Bitxfy – a mobile Bitcoin wallet exchanging UAH to bitcoins and back;

Infra – a financial web protocol with multiple blockchains support;

Kuna – the biggest Ukrainian cryptocurrency stock exchange.

Vladimir Dubinin (the DistributedLab’s CEO and Founder) together with his partner and co-founder of the company, Pavel Kravchenko, are considered to be great activists in the blockchain movement and experts in the area.

But this is not the only company offering blockchain development services. AtticLab is one more leader in online-banking and cryptocurrency technologies. Their numerous projects are aimed to enhance the current state of the industry. For instance, their project Humaniq implements an innovative approach to blockchain authorization. Thanks to it, one may use biometrics to get access to the blockchain. The CEO of AtticLab, Sergei Vasylchuk, is also a well-known blockchain expert and evangelist.

Ukraine is famous for talented programmers and specialists in the field of cryptocurrency, so there are many more startups and companies providing services for blockchain miners. Among such Ukrainian talents clusters are N-iX, DNA325, and many others. Also, there is one very interesting project which aims to apply blockchain to create the most democratic voting system in the world. This is an E-VOX project, and it is based on the Ethereum blockchain.

In addition to companies working on the development of blockchain solutions, Ukraine is actively developing communities that promote the idea of bitcoin to the masses. One such community is Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine, a platform for communication and an information center on blockchain/bitcoin and other open distribution protocols. One of its founders, Mykhailo Chobanyan, is a famous Ukrainian blockchain activist, evangelist, and also the Founder of the Kuna Bitcoin Agency, a stock exchange for cryptocurrencies.

Summary: Blockchain in Ukrainian Realities

Despite the current status of the cryptocurrency in Ukraine is ambiguous, there are certainly great prospects for this technology on the Ukrainian market. Since the country is one of the leaders of cryptocurrency mining, the establishment of its legal status becomes inevitable. In the press, there have already been statements by Ukrainian politicians that Ukraine can turn the blockchain expertise into an advantage if it allows using cryptocurrencies legally. Moreover, this can happen in the nearest future as the issue of blockchain can be viewed even this September.

However, if it is simple and legitimate to obtain the cryptocurrency in Ukraine, there are many obstacles to use it and buy commodities. The legal ban on accepting cryptocurrency for payment and several other issues make it impossible to pay for goods with such money, so you can spend your mined bitcoins or litecoins only in stores/countries where cryptocurrencies are accepted for payment. However, this does not affect the number of blockchain followers as Ukrainian entrepreneurs often consider the cryptocurrency as an advantageous investment and do not hurry to spend the accumulated funds.